Specifications
EPSON
EPSON
AMERICA INC.
SERVICE DEPARTMENT
PRODUCT
SUPPORT
BULLETIN
DATE:
4/7/87
NUMBER:
S-0009
SUBJECT: EQUITY III+ CONFIGURATION WITH THIRD PARTY OPTIONS
While we
here at
Epson
can't possibly test all of the various
third-party options with the Equity III+, we can share some basic
guidelines with you.
Here are some tips for easier installation of
some of the more popular options.
Fixed Disk Drives
All in
all,
fixed disk
installation in the Equity III+ is
virtually the same as for the IBM PC AT. For those that don't have
experience with the AT procedure,
here are some guidelines:
1
- There are certain drive
parameters
that
have to know.
These
are:
number of
cylinders,
number of
heads,
any
recommended write precompensation value
and the
location of
the dedicated landing zone.
Once you know these facts, you can
refer to Appendix B in the
Equity III+
Diagnostics Manual to
determine
the
closest
possible drive
type
selection. The
Diagnostics Manual is
part of
the
complete software and
documentation package provided with the III+.
2-
As for the physical installation, the drive select jumper (or
switch) must be set for the second drive position (that is, if
the range is DS0-DS3, pick DS1). The terminating resistor has
to be installed on
the first logical drive
in the
system -
that is, if
you
have a
physical C and D drive, you would
terminate C. The 34 pin data cable from the WHDC controller is
a daisy-chain
configuration with
2 connectors. Please note
that these are marked C (the end connector) and D
(the middle
or
pass-through connector). Finally, there are two 20 pin
control cables; the uppermost (CN4) handles drive C and the
lower one (CN5) connects to drive D.
3-
Now for the initialization. There are
a couple of ways to
handle this: use
the
Epson-supplied
utilities (from
the
Diagnostics diskette) or
some third-party software, such as
SpeedStor or Disk Manager. Be
aware that
most drives will
require four separate steps: SETUP (to identify the drive to
CMOS RAM); low-level (physical)
formatting;
partitioning; and
then high-level
(logical) formatting.
The
Epson-supplied
programs
would be
(in
order): SETUP.EXE, HDFMTALL.COM,
FDISK.COM and
either FORMAT.COM or
SELECT.COM. SETUP and
HDFMTALL
can be accessed by
simply booting up
from the
Diagnostics
diskette.
Refer to
the Epson documentation for
detailed instructions on the use of these programs,
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